Cyclist At Fault In Crash With Car

A 67-year-old woman is nursing her injuries after being struck by a car in front of a shopping center on East Cliff Drive near 17th Avenue.

The woman was riding her bicycle eastbound on the sidewalk around noon Wednesday when a Toyota sedan that was leaving the shopping center struck her, witnesses told California Highway Patrol officer Rich Valdez, who investigated the crash.

Sue Miller and Tom Cardoza of Pleasure Point were traveling westbound on East Cliff Drive and about to make a right turn into the center when they stopped to let the cyclist pass. The cyclist had stopped at the shopping center’s driveway opposite the exiting Toyota, waiting for the right-of-way, they said.

The Toyota’s driver, who had been at the intersection waiting to turn right onto westbound East Cliff Drive, never saw the cyclist approach from his right side and he began to pull out of the driveway. But by then, the cyclist had begun to cross the driveway and into his path, they said.

That’s when he hit her.

“She rolled up onto the car’s hood, then rolled onto the ground and almost under the car,” said Miller. “I thought she was going to be run over. I never want to see anything like that ever again.”

A dog that was riding in the cyclist’s front cargo basket got loose and was corralled by bystanders, who dropped it off at the cyclist’s neighbor’s home, witnesses said.

The woman suffered an injury to her left knee. The man who hit her drove her to the hospital for treatment, Valdez said.